Retirees say they no longer have confidence in non-contributory pension schemes, FG ultimatum

PENSIONS under the umbrella body of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme (NUPCPS) said on Monday that its members have lost confidence in the contributory pension scheme due to the federal government’s inconsistent and discriminatory treatment of the scheme.

NUPCPS also denounced the non-payment of outstanding pension entitlements of 15 percent from 2007, 33 percent from 2010 and the resulting pension adjustment of the 2019 national minimum wage owed by the federal government to its members.

The pensioners, who gathered in the conference hall of the secretary of the government of the federation in Abuja and led by the national chairman, Comrade Sylvanus Nwaiwu, condemned the “inconsistent and discriminatory way the federal government is handling the (contributory pension) scheme. ”

Nwaiwu said the government is not only undermining the rights of CPS retirees, but pension providers have followed suit. He hinted that members of the union have not received the recently announced release of funds for payment for 2.5 percent employer arrears from the National Pension Commission (Pencom).

“The agreed terms and conditions between the government (as an employer) and Nigerian employees who direct the premium pension policy have been grossly violated, waived and abused by the Federal Government as a party.

“We have lost confidence in the scheme due to the inconsistent and discriminatory way in which the government (as an employer) deals with the scheme. For example, since 2019, to say the least, there has been a recycling budget line in the annual budget of the National Pension Commission (Pencom) for the payment of outstanding pension obligations to CPS retirees without any funds being released.

“Our suspicion is that this method is being used to dissuade the unsuspecting CPS retirees from publicly protesting for the payment of their pension entitlements, assuming that they are budgeted for.

“Retirees under the CPS have come here today to tell fellow Nigerians that due to the government’s inconsistency and discriminatory implementation of the premium pension scheme policy, we have lost faith in the scheme.

“And unless all of their outstanding pension entitlements are paid to them before the end of the first quarter of this year, all civil servants, both employed and retired, will have no choice but to withdraw from the CPS and request to be straight back to the old Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).

“We call on Nigeria’s organized labor leaders to know that ‘an employee of today is the retiree of tomorrow’ and therefore to stand up and push the Federal Government of Nigeria to end the state of emergency for pensions to right the wrongs going on in Nigeria. The pension sector in Nigeria.

“We are calling on all anti-corruption agencies to investigate from 2019 to date whether funds have been released by the federal government for the payment of past-due pension increases to retirees under the CPS and what happened to the funds (if there is a release of funds) including the N700 billion government bonds in 2022, which was made public as having been collected by the Debt Management Office (DMO) for, among other things, the payment of all entitlements to retirees under the CPS.”

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